What happens
Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa stroll down Main Street on a Sunday, stopping passersby to ask how much coffee they drink. They meet a self-described Soviet goodwill ambassador, a man with a mitten cut open for one finger, a woman in a dubious fur coat, and Phil Harris, who recounts a mix-up over a Columbia contract that landed him in Washington. Later Fred visits Jack Haley at the Majestic Theater, where Haley describes his plans for an opera set in Middletown, USA, and sings the Traveling Salesman's number. The episode is a 1949 installment of the Fred Allen Show, first aired January 23, 1949, on CBS and NBC.
Main Street and the Majestic Theater, a Sunday in Washington, DC
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Boris Shashley, Titus Moody, Mrs. Nussbaum, Phil Harris, Kenny Delmar, Jack Haley
Listen for: Fred and Portland's street interviews about coffee drinking, and Jack Haley's Middletown opera and the Traveling Salesman song
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.